This invention relates to a method for making a soft point or soft nose plated bullet and the product arising from such method.
It is known in the art that there are advantages to jacketed, or plated, soft point bullets. The jacket generally is formed of a material to provide a degree of lubrication for the bullet as it passes through the rifling of a barrel, thus to minimize galling, as may occur with a solid lead bullet. The jacket also aids in keeping the base metal of the bullet intact on impact while the point expands. Although the advantages of such bullets have been known for some time, past processes for making such bullets have not produced close tolerance uniformity in the jacketing material, nor were they able to produce an adequate bond between the core and the jacketing material, while providing a soft point of exposed core metal.
In the industry at the present time, it is common to produce a soft point, or soft nose, jacketed bullet by first producing a cup-shaped jacket of jacketing material, such as copper. Into this is inserted a quantity of core, or base, metal, such as lead. The core metal may be inserted either as a cylindrical wire section, or it may be poured therein in a molten state. Either way, there is only minimal adhesion provided between the core and jacketing material, and thus, there is a tendency for separation to occur in use.
It is recognized that U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,612 to Darigo et al discloses a base metal core which has a jacket electroplated thereto. However, there is no suggestion therein of forming a bullet having an exposed protruding soft nose of base metal.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a novel plated jacket soft point bullet which overcomes many of the disadvantages of prior art devices.
Another object is to provide a novel method for producing such a bullet which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art as set out above, and produces a useful soft point jacketed bullet.
A further object is to provide a novel method for producing a soft nose jacketed bullet in which there is maximum adhesion between the core and plating material to minimize separation during use, while still providing an exposed protruding soft metal point.
Yet another object is to provide a novel soft nose jacketed bullet in which the jacketing material is applied in a uniform selected thickness and density.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for forming a soft nose jacketed bullet in such a manner that jacketing material required is reduced to a minimum to conserve valuable materials, yet provides sufficient jacketing and adhesion characteristics that satisfactory operational characteristics are achieved.